Humility. ( Philippians 2 v5- 11)

A little bit of humility goes a long way ,true humility is not a showy thing, it should be genuine,not a Uriah Heep, 'I'm every so humble',  false  confession. Nor should it be a one off occasion,rather it should be a life manifestation. Peter exhorts the younger men to submit themselves to the elders.and to clothe themselves with humility towards one another,because, 'God  opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble ( 1 Peter 5 v 5 ) How is it manifest? by taking the place of a servant, as our Saviour did  (Philippians 2 v 5 -11). Peter declares,'Be clothed with humility', our dear Saviour personified that,I have looked at many examples of humility by preachers and so many other people,but they would all agree that in our dear Saviour ,we have by far the greatest manifestation of true humility. Charles R. Swindle  wrote the following,'Though  enwrapped in the radian light of His own divine glory, God the Son put a veil over His glory- not diminishing it or extinguishing it, but concealing it- all on behalf of a cold, dark world that sought to plunge Him into the shadow of death'. What a incomprehensible, unfathomable   example of selfless humility' Try following that.

'Fight the good fight . ( Romans 8 v31 - 39 )

 When we were young ,one of my older brothers was being picked on by a fellow who lived in our street,you may have heard of a child who would say,'i'll get my big brother for you', well that's what happened,our eldest brother did go and deal with him.Israel had come out of Egypt and they were going into the promised land,there would be many battles to be fought,those nations would be equipped with horses and chariots,and their armies would be greater than theirs.and this is what they were told,' Do not be faint hearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory'. ( Deuteronomy 20 v 3 - 4 ) Yes they would have to fight,one writer say's,' Divine  sovereignty does not negate human activity,' it is not ,'Lets go and let God', no,they were going to to have to fight,the important thing is the Lord  would be with them and  would give them the victory,and so victory would be assured.We new covenant Israelites have many battles to fight on our way to glory,because the Lord will be with us ,victory is assured.

                                                     'Onward Christian soldiers'

Don't be gullible. ( 1 Thessalonians 5 v 16 -22 )

 I recently heard of a minister who was walking  through a local market,and his attention was drawn to a lady who was clutching her hand bag,he didn't think much about this, when he felt the Lord speaking to him. He was told to go and speak to that lady/.This is what he  was told to say,''Your life is all wrapped up ,like your hand bag'',it turned out that this lady was the wife of a murderer,the murder had happened recently,the minister was able to talk to her and hopefully help her.A friend of mine and his wife were  attending a church of a Pastor friend of theirs. The Pastor wasn't speaking but another elder was,he read the scriptures and he look straight at my  friend saying,' that was a word for you', and my friend nodded in agreement.Later his minister friend said, 'do you realise what he the preacher meant'?,My friend said ,'not really',his friend told him that the reading was about someone committing adultery.I can assure you that was not true,my friend and his wife are a faithful couple.In 1 Thessalonians 5 v20-22, we are told ,' Do not treat prophecies with contempt. but test them all; hold on to what is good,reject every kind of evil'. There are many cranks,crooks ,twisters, and over enthusiastic people,who declare,'here is the word of  God, for you', Don't accept it as necessary true,test all things by the scriptures,one writer puts it like this,'don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil'.

Not yet. ( 1 John 3 v 1 - 2)

 Peter Adam in his commentary on the book of Malachi writes,' How amazing that though we know we are not the centre of the  universe, we feel,think, relate and act as if we are. Our self-centredness blinds us to God; we try to live in a fool's paradise, when in fact it is more like hell than a paradise.' God last' rather than ,'God first' is our effective motto and rule. Is it as serious as that?, I think so,wherever mankind dwells,we bring something with us, our fallen nature,which  we so under rate , our fallenness is ever with us.Our best moments can change in a moment into our worst , our world history is littered with mountains of dead bodies,and it does not appear to be changing. Oh yes we are capable of so much good,no one denies that,but it is not the good that is the problem,it is that darker side that manifests itself in so many destructive ways.I believe God grants us experiences,that reveals to us how deadly we can become.  I know someone who is a Christian of many years who was hurt by someone near to him,he felt  like ,literally killing that person. It was the Greeks who had a saying,''Man know Thyself'',we don't know ourselves,but God does.we are sinners,God's answer is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,when we embrace Him as Saviour, are sins are forgiven, and  and we find that He can breath  into our lives and set us free,oh no we will not sinless, that will never happen while we are in this mortal coil but it will happen one day,and wonder of wonders we shall be like Jesus.

Contentment .( Philippians 4 v 10 - 20 )

 When Israel was about to conquer the city of Jericho, they were told that they were not to keep any of the spoils for themselves,it was all to go into the  treasure  ( Joshua 6 v 19 ).But unfortunately a man called Achan disobeyed ,and brought trouble upon the nation,He and his family paid the penalty for there sin  ( Joshua 7 v 25}When he confessed his sin he said 'I coveted', (Josh 7 v 21) ,yes coveting  is a sin,it is something that mankind is prone to and the devil plays into it,read Gen3v 1,he tempts people to want more,he does not tell you that when you yield to the sin of covetousness there is a price to pay.Dale Ralph Davis writes of the cancer of covetousness that we are consumed with, indeed this is one of the first principles of 'serpent theology'.As Christians we must be careful that we don't feed into it,It was a man called Jeremiah Burroughs who wrote a book  called,'The Rare Jewel of Christian contentment', it the apostle Paul who wrote,' I  know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content.'(Philippians  4 v 12 )What was that secret? well in v 13 the apostle declares ,' I can do all this through Him (Christ) who gives me strength.'

                                'We need His strength to teach us to be content in every condition'

                                                              ' Matthew  Henry'

                               

 

 

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Baa baa baa. ( Isaiah 55 v 6 - 7)

 I remember when I was little boy,there was a special church gathering,were we little one's were on the platform singing a song,my mother and aunt were there.As we sang it became to much for me,and I started to cry,but I do remember the song we were singing,well some of it,here are some of the words of that song.

                                             'We're poor little lambs ,who have lost their way

                                              Baa  baa baa!

                                              We're little black sheep,who have gone astray

                                              Baa baa baa'

There are two things in these words one , the little lambs, are lost, and the black sheep have gone astray,they are in a sorry state.They depict humanity  in their lostness ,in Isaiah  53 we are told ,'We all,  like sheep ,have gone astray,  each of us has turned to our own way'.The fact is we are all under the same umbrella, we are sinners, and we start manifesting that at a very early age,and it never leaves us,and often gets worse. There is another verse to that little song it goes,

                                               'Gentlemen songsters off on a spree ,doomed  

                                                from here to eternity,Lord have mercy on such

                                                as we.'

The word spree means doing something enjoyable, like shopping,we often loose sight of the eternal things,for the things that are temporal. The awesomeness of our eternal destiny needs to be faced,our deepest need is not material things but mercy,which we can receive when we bow before the cross and ask Jesus to be our Saviour.

Go. ( Mathew 28 v 18 - 20 )

 Our Saviour  in  Acts 1 v 8 said , 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,and in all Judea,and Samaria, and to the ends of  the earth'.That still stands as a  challenge to every new generation of Christians.That means proclaiming the gospel, churches will die if that is ever neglected.As one looks at the apostle Paul the missionary ,we see a man consumed with a passion to proclaim  the gospel.I was talking to a young unsaved girl,she said,' that there are  so many religions, I replied. but there is only one Saviour', let us be clear, He is the only way to come to God (John 14 v 6 ). Our Saviour said about going into all the world,John Stott writes,'The kingdom of God is international in its membership.Christs kingdom tolerates no narrow nationalisms, when it is consummated at the end, the countless redeemed company will be seen to be drawn from every nation, tribe,people and language'.(Revelation 7 v 9) We must not neglect this task,we must obey God rather than men,in England in the 18th century,it was unheard of for any one to preach the gospel in the open air.But God raised up the Wesley's and George Whitfield to leave that restriction ,and went into the highways and the by-ways ,and preached the gospel

                                                  ' The torch is now passed unto us'.